Toothpaste prompted Ohio University evacuations

Mary Beth Lane, The Columbus Dispatch

Tuesday

Apr 30, 2013 at 12:01 AMMay 1, 2013 at 9:45 AM

A common jailhouse fix was the source of the white, powdery substance that prompted the evacuation of two offices at Ohio University last week. A laboratory test performed at the Ohio Department of Health confirmed that the substance was toothpaste, university police said in a news release.

A common jailhouse fix was the source of the white, powdery substance that prompted the evacuation of two offices at Ohio University last week.

A laboratory test performed at the Ohio Department of Health confirmed that the substance was toothpaste, university police said in a news release.

A West Virginia prison inmate applying to attend the university sent a package containing his application and background materials. West Virginia authorities interviewed the inmate and determined that he had used toothpaste to seal it, university spokeswoman Renea Morris said yesterday. She did not know to which university program the inmate was applying.

A university police investigation found that sealing envelopes with toothpaste is a common practice among inmates.

University police investigators concluded that as the toothpaste dried while in transit, it began to flake and would have appeared powdery when the package was opened by a university employee in the Legal Affairs Office at the West Union Street Office Center on Thursday morning.

The discovery of the unknown white powdery substance led to the evacuation of about six employees from that office and a People’s Bank branch in the same building. A barricade was flung up. The offices reopened on Friday.

The employee who opened the package and sounded the alarm certainly did the right thing, even though it turned out to be toothpaste, Morris said.“Better safe than sorry,” she said.

mlane@dispatch.com

@MaryBethLane1

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